Oct 20 2019

 

 

Watching the October 15th debate was about as exciting as watching paint dry. Tulsi Gabbard was the only candidate who didn’t seem overly enthusiastic about the immediate impeachment of our Gangster-in-Chief, Donald Trump.  Elizabeth Warren was unanimously acclaimed the new front runner in the Dem’s nomination contest if only by the fact that every other candidate directed their most venomous attacks at her—instead of Uncle Joe Biden—the previous front-runner. Everybody was glad to see Bernie Sanders, after his heart attack, still being Bernie Sanders even though his shouts of outrage at the basic unfairness of our present economic system were now at a slightly lower volume level. It didn’t help my evening when my St. Louis Cardinals baseball team (remember, I grew up in St. Louis) went ‘four and OUT’ in the Pennant race. So, I went to bed early with the quote of John Bolton latest simile ringing in my ears, “Rudy is (like) a hand grenade, he’s going to get us all killed”. I assume John was talking about ‘us’ being Trumps gangster team headed by Giuliani operating in the back alleys of the Ukraine—Trumps’ ‘let’s do it ourselves and make money on it’ private version of our State Department. I don’t think the nomination needle moved at all— but the impeachment needle moved up about 10% and now it’s just below 50% on ‘vote or no vote’ scale, proving again the old adage, ’There’s no business like show business!’

     Just remember ‘I told you so’ when the saga of Trump’s Presidency is made into an Oscar winning gangster movie. Sorry, Donald Trump is just a Jewish version of the Italian Al Capone and Donald is smarter than Al, because, robbing our treasury is a lot bigger ‘job’ than Al’s whiskey business! Like Al, Donald’s tax returns will probably put him behind bars—just like Al’s unpaid taxes did to him.  Donald has learned that he could get away with laughing at the FBI and to con the American electorate but he shouldn’t have tried to cheat the IRS! Real crooks, like Al Capone and Donald Trump only learn the hard way—and that’s with a heavy dose of ‘hard’ jail time. I’ll have to ask ‘Siri’ whether any President has ever been impeached and then served jail time. Trump has set the record for corruption of the office of President. I hope he sets the record for how he personally has to pay for doing that. Sorry friends, ‘Crooked Hillary’ should also be serving time in jail, not for destroying illegal e-mail messages, but for taking millions of dollars in bribes from countries wanting to court her favor while she was our fearless Secretary of State and piling up money to support her planned presidential campaign—along with Bill and Hillary’s retirement fund . Bill and Hillary not only stole White House furniture when they were kicked out of the White House, but Hillary tried to lie, cheat and steal their (her) way to restore the imperial Clinton presidency. It almost worked!

     Putting the most important issue our country is facing aside for a minute, I want to go back to the last debate if only to give credit where credit is due. Sorry folks, if you think the corruption of our government by Donald Trump is our biggest problem, you are wrong! The most important issue I believe our country is facing today is the fact of ‘money’ corrupting our total political system. And that’s the problem Elizabeth Warren is, in my opinion, of all those on the debate stage that night, the most capable fixing. However, I’m afraid that not enough of our electorate remember, or possibly even care, about her efforts to formulate and then get passed into law the Consumer Product Safety Commission during the Obama administration. Then, when she started to try to reform the banks and money lenders (with a Consumer Financial Protection Commission), Obama ‘threw her under the bus’ to protect his main source of campaign funds—the big banks! Obama was so afraid of Elizabeth Warren he blocked her appointment to head the CPS—which she had founded!  I hope she will find the wisdom and courage to explain to the press and our electorate that the health and education of the American people are more important than the taxes needed to pay for both! If she would just do that, I think her detractors would find another candidate at which to throw their verbal rocks.

      And, the more I listen to Amy Klobuchar the better I like her.  She lacks the ‘fire’ of Warren or Sanders but she speaks with reason and honesty worthy of more attention by anyone who really cares about the future of our democracy.  You would think a woman from a cold place like Minnesota would welcome a little more ‘fire in her belly’! Maybe she just needs a little more time to warm (up) to the contest?

     My present estimation of the nominees and their abilities to qualify for the position as POTUS  

 

is based on my opinion as to their talent(s) level vs the level needed for that job. Those talents

 

are;

 

  Leadership   Economic    Foreign   Political  Social   Moral     Intelligence & Communication

  Ability         knowledge  policy      skills       justice  character    level            skills

                                         experience               goals

Here below, is how I rate the twelve candidates at this point in the contest. Maybe you will do your own rating? Let’s use a scale of 1, 2, 3 with 3 being sufficient and 1 being an insufficient talent rating. I really would like to see a ‘24’ rating as the ultimate, minimum ‘qualifier’.  

 

                    Leader  Econ  Foreign  Political  Social  Moral  Intelligence  Communication  totals

 

Warren           3         3          1             3            3          3               3                   2                   21

Biden             1         1          3             3            1          2 (?)          2                   1                   14

Sanders          1         1          1             2            3          3               2                   2                   15

Klobuchar      2        2          1             2            2           3               3                   3                   18

Harris            1         1          1             2            3           3               3                   1                   15

Buttigieg       2         1          1             1            2           3               3                   2                   15

Booker          2         1          1             2            2           3               2                   2                   15

O’Rourke      1         1          1             2            3           3               1                   2                   14

Yang             2         2          1             1            1           2               2                   1                   12

Gabbard        1         1          1             1            1           3               2                   1                   11

Castro           2         1          1             2            2           3               2                   1                   14

Steyer         unknown                                                                                                       unknown

 

     Hubris looked at me and said ENOUGH for today! So, after a couple of shots of gin and

 

Vodka, over ice, in a plastic cup (I don’t take my cocktail to the corral in glass), I saddled him up

 

and with a hearty shout of Hi Ho Hubris, Aawaay! we were off on our evening ride on the ditch

 

banks of the Rio Grande. The Canadian geese and the Sandhill cranes are in abundance in the

 

fields along the Rio at this time of the year. Fall is the most pleasant and beautiful season as the

 

Cottonwood leaves turn bright gold in this part of the Rio Grande Valley. That’s why our new

 

wildlife preserve is named ‘Val de Oro’ or, in English, ‘The Valley of Gold’.

 

       Lou

 

                                 Copyright, October 20, 2019, Louis J. Christen

 

Moving the Needle Lou (The Lone Curmudgeon) Writes Again!